Just a little glimpse into a phone conversation that has happened in my house more than once, sound familiar? As…what do we call ourselves, “professional work from home moms”, “mompreneurs”, “domestic engineers”, whatever, we’re women trying to balance our dignity with our basic animal instinct to do anything for our children. 
If at all possible, try to plan out your phone calls for a time when your children are napping – if that doesn’t work read on. Make sure you have taken care of your children’s basic needs before making phone calls, ie: changed, fed, played with, and forewarned that you will be on the phone starting in 5 minutes- this will help to eliminate your internal guilt when making cut throat hand signals to your little gems whilst on the phone. Give your child the opportunity to make any last requests before you make your phone calls – another guilt buster. Have some sort of office space where you make business calls- make sure your children are familiar with the idea that when you are there, you are working. Explain to your children in age appropriate terms why it is important for you to be on the phone sometimes- before you’re on the phone. Be fair, if you don’t have a childcare provider for your children when you are working from home, try to keep your work hours under 2 consecutive hours (depending on the age of your children) at a time while your child is awake, when you are not working you are totally accessible to them even if it means doing housework in close proximity to them and allowing them to speak with you freely. Ask your children (if they are old enough to colour) to make a 2 sided flag for you, one side that you can display when you are on non-business calls, and the other side for business calls ie: do not interrupt if you care to see Chuck E. Cheese ever again. BONUS: For the Martha Stewart mom in you this counts as “craft time too”. Keep some healthy snacks on hand for when you are on the phone that you can easily hand to your child should the need present itself. If your child is too young to be away from you or has displayed a significant amount of self control in the past allow them to be in your workspace with you and play with “quiet toys” while you are on the phone. If all else fails- or for that all important call hand your kid a Tupperware- with a small opening (making it take longer to access contents) full of sweets- or a super-sized sucker and let them go to town while you complete your call. WARNING: This will only buy you about 15- 20 minutes before the sugar high kicks in so use them wisely."
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